SCAP ELC Award: Sustainable clothing design award finalists unveiled

Banbury, UK — Four talented fashion designers have made the final stage of the inaugural SCAP Extending the Life of Clothes Design Award (SCAP ELC Award), announcedby WRAP. The finalists now have to face the panel of industry expert judges in a 30 minute interview where they’ll be questioned on the inspiration for their submissions and how they would develop their idea to suit a particular market. The winner will receive £5,000 and the opportunity to progress their work and develop it for a commercial market.

WRAP research demonstrates that the biggest opportunity to tackle the environmental impacts of clothes is by targeting the active life. The SCAP ELC Award challenged designers to address the key reasons for garment failure and the concepts needed to achieve solutions to longer life times, as well as deliver ideas that are fashionable and saleable.

The finalists are Gayle Atkins of Northbrook College Sussex/Marbella Design Academy; Nicholas Fellows of London College of Fashion; Rhiannon Hunt, graduate of Chelsea College of Art and Design; and Valerie Goode of Kitty Ferriera Ltd. Gayle Atkins` submission focuses on changing items from one product into another – she outlines a dress that is easily transformed into a bag. Nicholas Fellows is proposing a children’s wear concept with dissolvable threads that enables consumers to easily increase the size of the item to accommodate a growing child. Rhiannon Hunt’s idea focuses on detachable fastenings to replace traditional methods for ease of size adjustment; and Valerie Goode`s concept is service focussed, offering made to measure tailoring for items that are easy to mix and match with the versatility to take the wearer through from the boardroom to the bar.

Marcus Gover, Director at WRAP underlined: “It is very encouraging to see the appetite for this kind of thinking in this sector – we need this new approach to designing clothes to be embraced if we’re to move towards a model that makes better use of our raw materials and gets the greatest value from them.“

Tamsin Lejeune, CEO, Ethical Fashion Forum and SOURCE, and award judge, added: „The ELC Design Award is an important initiative by WRAP to raise awareness and increase engagement with the pressing issue of textile waste and the pollution that results from it. We have been impressed by the quality of entries and the ingenuity of the designers, who have created some very innovative solutions to complex problems.“

SCAP ELC Awards is delivered by WRAP, the organisation behind the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP) and Love Your Clothes, with support from Defra, British Fashion Council, The Knowledge Transfer Network, InnovateUK, Sustainable Angle and ModeConnect.